Claw hatchet



June 24 1924.

F. F. HOBSON CLAW HATCHET Filed Oct. 22 1923 awwwlloi FIT/1255 wwwwo Patented June 24, 1924. V

UNITED STATES FRANCIS FULLER HOIBSON, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

CLAW I-IATCI-IET.

Application filed October 22, 1923. Serial No. 670,091.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANCIS FULLER Hoe- SON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Claw Hatchets; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in so-called claw-hatchets and it has more par ticular reference to a tool of this class which is especially, but not necessarily, designed for use by lathers. dinary hatchet is formed with a nail-pulling notch in the rear edge of its blade, which is not as satisfactory as it should be. At- 2 tempts have been made with more or less success to provide the front side of the hatchet head with nail-pulling claws and while hatchets of this type may be successfully used for open work, they cannot be ad= 5 vantageously employed when nails must be driven in spaces defined by walls disposed at relative sharp angles to each other, as the claws project forwardly from the head and interfere with the driving operation. It is the object of my invention to improve upon hatchets of this type by providing one in which the entire front edge or face of the I head and blade is free of projections, the head being formed with a longitudinal groove having undercut side walls to form the equivalent of the nail-pulling claws heretofore used. A tool is thus provided which meets all demands and is satisfactory in every manner.

lVith the foregoing in view, the invention resides in the novel subject matter hereinafter described and claimed, the description being supplemented by the accompanying drawing.

Figure 1 is a side elevation partly in section.

Figure 2 is a front edge view. Figure 3 is a horizontal sectional view on line 33 of Fig. 1.

In the drawing above briefly described, I have illustrated a lathers hatchet construct- As well known, the or-.

- ed in accordance with my invention, the naildriving head 1 of the tool having its front side disposed on substantially the same line with the front edge of the cutting blade 2. Hence, a plane surface is provided which extends fromthe cutting edge to the extremity of the free end of the nail driving head. The aforesaid front side of thehead 1, which is thus rendered entirely free of projections beyond the edge of the blade 2, is formed with a V-shapednail-pulling groove 3 disposed longitudinally of the head, said groove being provided with opposed undercut side walls 4 which converge toward the nail-driving surface of said head.

It is to be observed that the socalled groove decreases in width from the usual handle receiving socket toward thefree end of the nail-driving head, the walls thereof merging into each other at a point spaced inward from said free end. Itis also to be noted that the depthof the groove is gradually increased from the wide end toward the apex portion. By so forming the roove, a pair of gripping jaws of great stability are produced and an effective grip is insured by the divergent inside walls and the likewise diverging outside edges. Furthermore, the groove is formed wholly within the nail- -driving head, which is the only portion that will bear strain, yet this head is not weakened to any detrimental extent, for the particular formation of the groove obviates the necessity of removing an unnecessary amount of material in producing the groove.

As excellent results may be obtained from the exact details disclosed, they are preferably followed, but within the scope of the invention as claimed, minor changes may be made. i

I claim:

A lathers hatchet comprising a one-piece body including a nail-driving head and a cutting blade between which is the usual handle-receiving socket, the front side of said head and the front edge of, said blade being disposed on substantially a straight line from the cutting edge. of the blade to the impact surface of the head whereby to provide a plane surface entirely free of projections, and said body being provided with a groove formed in said plane surface but confined Wholly Within said head, said groove being substantially V-shaped and having its Wide end disposed adjacent the 5 .aforesaid socket With its apex disposed at a point spaced inwardly from said impact surface, the opposed side walls of said groove converging from the bottom of the latter to said plane surface, and the bottom of said groove gradually increasing in depth 10 from said wide end toward the apex.

In testimony whereof I hzwe hereunto at fixed my signature.

' FRANCIS FULLER'HoBsoN. 

